Google is adding new tools to its search engine to fight misinformation, by verifying the sources of its results and putting information into context. What better way to detect fake news.
Search engines are popular with Internet users for finding the information they are looking for from all over the world in a few seconds, whether it is to know the weather forecast for the next day or to try to understand the political unrest that is agitating the country. So much so that many confuse browser and search engine when they connect to the Internet… However, faced with the quantity of sources available, one can quickly find oneself lost and have difficulty determining reliable and relevant data. This is why Google is providing users of its famous – and essential – engine with five new tools to help them verify their sources. “Everyone should be equipped with the tools they need to find information they can trust. That’s why we’re putting in features to help you rate the information you see online while expanding the range of ‘useful information you find’explains the Redmond firm in his blog post. And the least we can say is that it’s timely, given how fake news is increasingly difficult to detect!
Internet research: how to develop critical thinking
The first tool takes the form of a module called “About this result”, which opens by clicking on the three small dots to the right of the search result. It is responsible for providing the user with information on the identity of the site – the information is generally taken from Wikipedia – as well as its date of indexing on Google. Launched in 2021 in English and now present on the French search engine, it aims to make it easier for the user to identify trusted sources and understand the origin of information.
Google is also introducing a carousel to display different sources, and therefore different viewpoints, about the topic being searched. This tool, called Perspectives, aims to help Internet users better understand the subject by approaching it from different points of view so that they can form their own opinion. For now, this function will only be launched in the United States on desktop and mobile, and we can only hope that Google rolls it out more widely in other countries.
Google Search: putting information in context
Google goes further in its desire to help Internet users to make sense of things and develop their critical thinking. Knowing that information can be treated in different ways depending on the editorial line of a media and the political orientation of the journalist – no speech is neutral – the search engine will integrate an “About this author” module. within the “About this result” module, so that the user can put things in context. This tool will only be available, initially, globally and on the Perspectives carousel in the United States – in English.
Also, when he enters the URL of a website into the search engine, the information about the page will show up in an “About” carousel at the very top of the page. This could be a description from the site itself, but also what other Internet users or platforms have said about it. From there, it is up to the user to assess whether he wants to visit it and what level of trust to give him. This feature will be available worldwide, but only in English for now.
Finally, the last novelty concerns the still hot topics, which are covered in real time and whose information is scarce or subject to rapid change. It aims to fill information gaps and appears when Google’s systems “simply don’t have a great deal of confidence in the overall quality of the results available”. In this case, the search engine will automatically display content notices to provide context about the overall results on the page. Deployed last year in English, this function will be available in French, German, Italian, Spanish and Japanese in the coming months.